Golf writing has hit some horrible lows this week. Right now the half assed meme that is being spread is the lack of American golf tournaments on next year's schedule.  Steve Elling took a whack at it, and I blasted him in return. Now Bill Huffman comes to bat.

The Constructivist does a great demolition job(I suggest everyone go read it) on what Huffman wrote. Which included the obvious proposition that people in Phoenix should make an effort to host next year's Tour Championship.  The tournament is TBD other than the week it is going to be played. Come on Arizonans, put up or shut up. I'm not whining about no tournament in Florida.

Huffman is a perfect example of 2010 LPGA derangement syndrome. In an article on whining,  he also clearly states why the LPGA isn't coming to Arizona next year.

 "Most people had expected Arizona to be left off the master plan chiefly because corporate sponsorship for golf in the Valley has been nil since the economy went belly up. Or did you forget that the Champions and Nationwide tours met a similar demise here, and that the FBR Open is desperately searching for a title sponsor? "

Bill, other tours are having problems getting corporate sponsorship in Arizona, obviously the LPGA is no different. Then what the hell was the point of what you wrote?

Maybe it was to show how poorly informed you can be. Like this-

With only 13 of its 23 events in the U.S. for 2010, a rapid decline on American soil due to a gloom-and-doom economy, more than a few observers are asking questions about the LPGA’s future.

*****

Trust me, we will rue the day we let this tournament get away. Especially when the LPGA announces that its “outsourcing’’ almost half of its schedule -- 11 or 12 events (one tournament in Korea still is uncertain) – to countries like China, Singapore, Thailand, Mexico, France, England, Japan and, of course, Korea. I know some people, and especially Whan, think it’s a grand idea.

Is it 10 or 11 or 12 events that are being played outside the United States, Bill? It's 10 or 11 whether you count Korea in the equation. You really shouldn't let your anger cloud your golf writing.

Bill isn't through yet-

Ironically, the LPGA’s fall from grace also began in ’05, when Carolyn Bivens – the seventh commissioner in the 55-year-old history of the LPGA and the first woman – ascended to her throne. The new queen promised to enhance the LPGA and leave a legacy of revolutionary change that included an English-only edict and, well, Twittering. But in the end, it cost Bivens her head, which was lopped off by the very hands that had put her in power.

English only policy? I never heard of such a thing. The policy was reported by Golfweek's Beth Ann Baldry as-

PORTLAND, Ore. - For the past several years, the LPGA has impressed upon its membership the importance of communicating effectively in English. As the game's dominance shifts to the East, the LPGA has strengthened its stance. Learning English no longer is a tour suggestion; it's a requirement.

At a mandatory South Korean player meeting Aug. 20 at the Safeway Classic, the tour informed its largest international contingent that beginning in 2009, all players who have been on tour for two years must pass an oral evaluation of their English skills. Failure would result in a suspended membership.

Players were going to be required to be proficient in English, not speak only English. Swedish, Mexican, Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, Thai were all going to still be permitted.

Also the LPGA has been around for 60 years, not 55. It's 60th anniversay is next year.

Huffman's derangement continues

Whan, who has about as much experience running a professional golf tour as Bivens – or zilch -- said it’s not all bad despite how it looks. Of course, he made no reference to the fact there will be no LPGA tournament in Arizona for the first time since 1980, nor did he point out that Florida, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii and Washington, D.C. also were erased in the blink of an eye.

There was no LPGA tournament in FL last year or in CO or GA or even Washington DC. Unless you counted the LPGA Championship at Bulle Rock or the Kingsmill in Williamsburg as DC. Williamsburg being called part of DC is sounding like Steve Elling saying West Palm Beach is outside of Miami.  I will cut Huffman a little slack, and say he was referring to the LPGA.

The LPGA hasn't been to some of those places Huffman lists since 2005 or 2006.  No erasing by Bivens or Whan needed to take place.

The biggest problem with all the nonsense that Huffman wrote is that he placed the blame for the lack of American tournaments at the feet of Michael Whan. Whan isn't even commissioner yet, and he wasn't even appointed to take over from Acting Commissioner Marty Evans till a few weeks ago.  Sal Johnson, who I disagree with on many things, was right when he said

"it could of been even uglier if the LPGA didn't get rid of Carolyn Bivens and got a stellar performance out of Marty Evans and Zayra Calderon."

The golf media would be wise to drop this lack of American tournaments meme before they get themselves a huge black eye. Anyone who studies what is being written out there could easily equate this nationalistic zeal as a form of racism or xenophobia.

Dave Seanor has already touched on just that.

Meanwhile, all the xenophobic gnashing of teeth over the LPGA’s 2010 schedule, which features only 13 tournaments in the United States, and fretting over new commissioner Mike Whan’s plans to further globalize the women’s circuit are symptomatic of so many Americans’ failure to come to grips with reality in the 21st century.

A former Golfweek editor, not some pain in the neck blogger, calling these diatribes xenophobic. Calm down guys and gals, the LPGA is changing and in the long run I think it is for the better.